001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I was discussing the logistics with Dr. Day. Uh good afternoon. Uh is there a electron approval for electronic participation by a school board member? Yes. Mrs. Lowry second. Dr. Dear Mr. Connor, would you please call the role? Mr. Con Mr. Connor. Mr. Andrews. Yes. Dr. Day. Yes, Dr. Gupta. Yes, Mrs. Preston. Yes, Mrs. Lori. Yes, Dr. Tansley. Yes. Motion carry 7. So, you're officially in pledge of allegiance. Dr. D. Please rise for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. today. Mr. Depal, could you put yourself on mute, please? Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Motion. Mr.
002Lowry, Mr. Andrews. Madam Cler, would you please call the role? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Li, yes. Dr. Translate. Yes. Motion carries 8 to zero. Thank you. Next one is chair comment and um I wanted to say something which I'm not comfortable saying it but I got to say it. Something happened in the last board meeting uh which is not in my mind should have happened would have will happen in future but is there any way in this board I was not uh for par parliamentary rules allow a motion to be reconsidered from the prevailing side and me and Mr. Andrews were not there so we were non-existent from the uh prevailing side miss uh Mrs. Lowry voted against it so
003she was not on the prevailing side. No, I think Mrs. P Mrs. Preston voted against the motion so she's not on the prevailing side and I'm humbly requesting is there a from the prevailing side. Is there a um desire to bring that motion back for reconsideration? I yes I have reasons for a desire. No. Um, it has to be from She's on the prevailing side. No, she voted. No. No. It was only Miss Pre. Only Miss Preston voted. No. Only Miss Preston. So only Miss Preston. You No. No. No. No. Prevailing side. The ones who voted for it. The winning side can reconsider. Okay. Yes. Mrs. Mr. Connor seconded. So we are reconsidering the motion as presented by Dr. Dale last time to ban Mr. McCain from speaking to the school board. Right now it's
004open for discussion. Uh Mr. Dr. David. So um I have some comments I'd like to uh read. Um Mr. McCain has been a champion of concern for the achievement gap of LCS students for many years. Um I personally have attended more than one meeting of the concerned citizens group that Mr. McCain leads and we encouraged him to attend meetings of our academic success committee this year. He gave an invited presentation to uh that committee at its October 8th meeting and you can see the slides from his presentation if you go to the agenda for that meeting on board docs. Um there were no other issues on the agenda that day so that he could have as much time much of the meeting's time as he needed. um continued conversation with him was also part of
005the committee's agenda on November 7 and December 3rd. He continued to attend the meetings of the academic success committee through February 25. Uh but I believe he has not attended the last couple meetings of that committee at one of which we briefly followed up on one of his suggestions. We also included him on the search committee which helped us identify our new superintendent. I point these things out to make it clear that the school board is not adverse to Mr. McCain's concerns at all. Rather, we share them and we welcome his input. When we began the public comment section of the June 3rd agenda, I viewed Mr. McCain as a friendly collaborator with the board and for that reason dispensed with the usual reading of the board's policies regarding public comment thinking that he would
006be the last person to disrespect them. And perhaps that was my mistake. If I had read the policy, he would have been reminded of the time limit for speakers and the prohibition against board members responding to questions or requests from commenters. Unfortunately, Mr. McCain did not respect those policies and was defiant in response to repeated requests for him to honor the time limit our policies impose even stating that he would refuse to sit down and we had taken some action on his concern. Um I've rewatched that uh the video from that meeting and I by my count he was asked to sit to stop and sit down eight times. Um, as the presiding officer of that meeting, I felt that his open defiance of our policy would set a bad precedent if unressed and so
007suggested the ban on future public comments for him in response, which was supported by the board's vote. This is very unfortunate because it focuses attention on the confrontation rather than finding solutions to our shared concerns. So, regarding the future, I expect and I think the process has already begun um that the board would be willing to rescend its prohibition of future public comments from Mr. McCain. But for my part, I would like to have some assurance that he will respect our policies in the future before I vote in favor of the motion. Let's go to Mr. Connor. I'll come back to you. Uh, I just wanted to say that we it was an unfortunate situation and but we really have to be careful and I know because I was sitting here saying we needed to
008read the rules and regulations and I'm praying that in the future every single time we have to do it every time for the one time. That way there's no cuz maybe because we didn't bring it out he were not reminded that there is a time limit and that we are not able to respond directly to the speakers and him demanding a meeting put us in a position like if we respond then we're violating our own rules of order. So, and I like if we rescend, which I am in favor of, we also I also want the message to go out that so it doesn't thought well if I just want to disrupt the meeting, I can just come and disrupt and eventually I'll have my way. We have to be able to follow our rules.
009If we're lawless, then there's no control. So, I hate that it happened. And I hate that we that I had to participate in it, but in the you know I I'm I will vote if the vote comes around to rescend, but I also want to make sure that we understand that in the future, we're going to ask that public comments stick to the and and some of that's written in state law. If you go and look at our it it it has um it references different codes in state law about public meetings. Um I thank Mr. Tensley cuz you gave me some information um in response to um a couple um emails that where you broke down the actual state statutes on the con conduction of a public meeting and what is considered a class
010one misdemeanor to disrupt said meetings. And um I want to make sure that in the future when someone knows that they go past the time and then defiantly refuses to leave the podium that there will be some consequences to that action. Mrs. Larry and and based on what u Mr. Connor said about the emails that we received, I felt to an extent um a little bit betrayal because Mr. Connor I mean not Mr. Connor. Um, Mr. McCann left out the fact that he he should have said at the podium he was in our meetings that he did attend that he did hear information from the administration about what they're doing to help the kids. We did I did mention in a meeting that we looked at his program. He mentioned from another state and that
011financially that's out of our bucket range. We could not do that. But I feel like these letters that we got this there was pertinent information that was missing. And after he had if he had stayed and listened um Dr. Davis came up and she presented everything that they were going to we're planning on doing for children for the future that are struggling. And I asked her out loud for the community sake. I said, you know, what's your timeline on this for us to look forward? So I'm all for our kids doing better, too. I know that's got to be realistic. I know it's been long and waiting. You know, I've only been on the board two years, but you know, we're doing what the tools we have given the best that we can. So, um
012I was surprised because Mr. um McCann has always been upstanding in all our meetings with us. So, that just surprised me a little bit, but I'm definitely willing to rescend if he realizes he's got to follow our policies. Going to see if Mr. The Paul is still there wants because I cannot see you with my back. Any other just I just wanted to make sure if you have you have an opportunity to speak because I cannot see you in the back. Uh just chime in if you feel like. Thank you. I I would I'd only be echoing has uh already said um I find Mr. McCain to be a valuable resource for this board. Uh and um I agree with just about everything he was making mention about that evening. Uh I would like assurance
013from him um that uh it doesn't, you know, whether it be an apology or just an assurance that it won't happen again. Um I am very much in favor of having um Mr. McCain's input be a part of what we do because he's very helpful, very very smart, and very passionate. So I'm I'm just echoing what has already been said. Yeah, I again echoing much of what everyone has said, but I I'm a I'm a huge Danny McCann fan. I think he's done great stuff, continues to do great things for this community, the city. I too was surprised at how things unfolded uh at the last meeting. Was unfortunate, but I I do uh again echo the the requirement, the the the request, I should say, for acknowledgement. And I would just elaborate on what
014Mr. Connor was saying. There is an Virginia code. It's 18.2-415 that disallows any kind of uh disruption of a public meeting of the sort of a school board. And that is punishable as a class one misdemeanor in Virginia. So what happened that night was Mr. McCann did break the law uh by not sitting down and and following the policies of the board. Um, I believe that needs to be acknowledged and and we need to make sure that the public understands that that is not acceptable. It is not acceptable. And so when the acting board chair said, "Do I need to call the police?" He was acting within the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia. So, um, but again, I do support Mr. McCann fully, wholeheartedly. He was a wonderful addition to the, uh, the search
015committee. uh his voice was heard and uh he was a big part of choosing our next superintendent or our new superintendent. Yeah. Yep. Um Mr. Chair, I would suggest that you invite Mr. McCain to the podium and ask if he has any comments he would make to the We do that as part of our process. I believe so. Yeah. Mr. McCain, would you be willing to come to the podium if if you would like to? You don't have to. You're free to say whatever you want to say, sir. Well, you know, I'm sorry that I stayed over the five minutes, but after all, there are questions and things that we need to address and it's no way we can do that if we stand here and make comments and ask questions or whatever and there's
016no respond. I take a meeting to be a place you listen, ask questions, and receive answers. We've been talking about our children ch students and children forever. Nothing has changed. So still, yes, I'm willing to five minutes or whatever, but we have to sit down somewhere at a time and a place so that we can further discuss what's going on with our students and our children and I will sit down. But something definitely need to happen. Thank you, sir. Because it's year after year. Let me just say this what I'm saying. I'm going sit down. And those numbers I gave you, they are your numbers. all that data and no one on the board has really addressed those. They need to be addressed and I'm willing to even stand up with some of you because
017we need to bring the community together. That's the only way we're going to do and make changes in our system. We'll make it happen. Thank you. Appreciate you coming up. Um yes, thank you. U so how should I proceed with the resend? Because the original motion was to ban him. So we take that motion down first. The motion is to resend that motion that passed on June 3rd. Okay. So, any further discussion? So, voting yes means we're ondoing that motion that we made before. Is any further discussion? Madame clerk, would you please call the role? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Mrs. Preston, now since I voted. Yes, you can still vote. Do I do I vote now or not? Okay. I wasn't sure if I could be included
018in this vote then. Yes. Mr. Mr. Depal. Yes. Yes. Mrs. Lori. Yes. Dr. Tanley. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And Mr. McCain, you're welcome to come to every public comment from here on. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for everything you do for Lynchburg City Schools and our kids. Next one is uh work session consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Second. Mrs. Lowry. Second. Dr. Day. Madam Clerk, would you please call the role? Mr. Connor, yes. Mr. Andrews, yes. Dr. Day, yes. Dr. Gupta, yes. Dr. Mrs. Preston, yes. Mr. Depal, yes. Mrs. Lori, yes. Dr. Tinsley, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, next one is physical education instruction assessment improvement. Uh, Mrs. Pew. Absolutely. I'm going to let Dr. Rica um offer his information to the
019board. I know he's been waiting a long time for this um opportunity. Um, and it's good news and so I am going to hand it over to Dr. Wood to share the information about physical education instruction and assess assessment. Well, thank you Mrs. Pew and and members of the board. It's so good to see everyone uh here on our last night together um as a group. Um so I am really thrilled to provide to you the uh the results of the wellness related fitness survey. Uh this is our end of year results for the school division. Um this is related to our PE or physical education uh com programs in the division. Uh so you might be wondering why is the operations guide presenting uh on uh achievement data for our students. Um what you
020might not know is over the last couple of years um I've had the opport the really really great opportunity to work uh with our arts teachers and our physical education and health teachers uh providing some instructional supervision uh working on the programs and and working with that group uh hopefully to make things even better than what they already are. So, I'm really thrilled to have had the opportunity to do that. It's been a really, really great experience for me. Um, I will greatly miss them uh when we're not together. Um, but I wanted to make sure to be here tonight to celebrate the really incredible success that they've had over the last year or so. Um, particularly in the the physical education components. Um, also had lots of successes on the art side, but just
021didn't have a presentation on that. Um, so this helps us understand a couple of things. Uh, the wellness related fitness survey. is the the essentially the so for physical education, right? So, it's not like we're reporting this uh in the same way that we are other so data, but it's really important uh that we take a look at what we have going on in terms of our physical fitness of our students as well as the um the the quality of instruction or the impact of our instruction is going on. So, we took a look at our endofear data at the at last year. Um so, the wellness related fitness survey has five major components. an abdominal uh assessment, uh the aerobic assessment, the upper body strength assessment, flexibility assessment, and then the trunk lift assessment.
022Trunk lift is essentially a uh a a an assessment of lower back flexibility. That's a very specific thing that they do. Uh we also break this up by age group. We we take a look at it by both gender and u by grade. Uh just for for simplicity here, we provided this just at the elementary, middle, and high school level. And what I'm showing you here is some pretty troubling data from last year. The negative numbers that you see are Lynchburg City Schools pass rates as compared to the statewide average pass rate. So if you take a look at for instance upper body strength in elementary school, uh the average pass rate for a school was about 70%. Well, we were 18% lower than that. So in every area at the at the end of
023last year, we were lower than the statewide average and in some cases quite considerably. So as you can imagine, that was a very troubling statistic for us to take a look at. Uh we wanted to make sure that we are looking at what's going on, what was going on in instruction uh related to uh physical education, why these things are going on uh and what it is that we can do to make instruction even better so that our students have the opportunity to grow and develop in a physically in the way that we need them to do so. Um, so one thing I'll say is that, you know, um, we'll often hear folks will say, well, you know, uh, hey, they're middle school students. They may or not may not want to engage in, uh,
024physical activity, that sort of thing, right? But I what I would say is that our our middle school students are not substantively different than any other middle school student in the state. And so they should be at least hopefully performing at the same level that any other middle school will be doing. And and hopefully as a school division that is focused on excellence, hopefully we are performing at an even better rate. And so that's our goal uh in all of this. So when we took a look look at that data um obviously as I said we were very troubled by that and we took uh tried to understand what was going on. Couple of findings here that I just want to go over that's really important and you may have heard about some of these
025things. Uh the first is that for a number of years postcoid students were not required to dress out for secondary physical education. Right? So all of us went through PE class. We all dressed out you know whether we liked it or not. Right? It's it's part of uh it's part of a thing that we do. Um, and we uh we found that that greatly reduced the engagement of our students. Uh, so if you're dressed like this when you go to PE class, you're probably not going to engage in the same way. So we started this year saying all students are required to dress out. There's obviously a number of issues with different different needs and that sort of thing. We we we met them um individually as well. We also found that to some extent
026assessments were not standard across the division. So everyone was sort of doing an an abdominal test or an aerobic test. they might be just sort of slightly different from one another and so we wanted to make sure that was consistent across the different across the division. U we also found in many cases that physical education or movement education that we call it in in the elementary school oftentimes was not aligned necessarily to the standards um or that fitness assessment rate. So we we might be playing you know a game but it may not be aligned to what our standards actually are uh for instruction uh in physical education and as a result not connected to the assessment. So, we wanted to make sure those are all aligned. Um, in some cases, uh, I mean, I've
027been saying it probably to everyone. Uh, we found that there was in in in in a few cases there was very minimal instruction going on in a few PE uh, classes. We made some adjustments in terms of uh, those those realities as well as in some cases some changes of personnel to make sure that instruction was happening in in in a way that was good fidelity. that probably the most troubling part here and the easiest thing to fix uh has been that many teachers even though they've maybe been here a long time just simply didn't know each other. Right? So if you think about the elementary schools oftentimes uh if if a teacher oftentimes is in one school with no other PE teachers or they might be in a couple of schools but they're they're
028not interacting on a daily basis with other physical education teachers at the elementary level. Now at the secondary level they have a department and that sort of thing but uh for many years u many teachers just did not have those relationships. um as we went along. So, we wanted to make sure we fixed that as well so they could develop that professional uh community of educators. Um so, here's what we did. Um in August of last year, we we started out with our professional learning days. Uh the teachers got together. They developed a common assessment guide. How are we going to do the assessment? Uh they also developed an assessment schedule. They said, uh at the beginning of the year, we're going to do a what we call pre-assessment or sort of beginning of the
029year assessment. We'll do a midyear or formative assessment and then we'll do an end of the year. That's what we end up reporting to the state having a common schedule for the whole division. Everybody kind of knows what's going on. Um and then we also developed a common warm-up routine uh with exercise banks. So uh as students go to physical education uh on a day-to-day basis or week to week depending on what level you're at. Uh you might have a common warm-up so that you are making improvements in your physical fitness in an intentional way. Uh as well as making making a bank for our folks to find exercises that would help us move forward. So that was a really great opportunity for teachers to work together. Um there was also in October uh we
030took a look at the beginning of the year data or pre-assessment data uh to say how are students doing in terms of their performance on our physical fitness assessments. Uh we found what we did um and then they developed a or completed a what we call backwards design exercise to help evaluate where that data is and how we might change instruction moving forward. And backwards design is essentially saying, hey, where do we want our students to be and how do we uh engage in instruction to get those students where they need, right? It's it's pretty simple there. Um, and then our last professional devel professional learning time, uh, they actually spent some time planning professional learning for the coming uh, uh, school year. Uh, I kind of felt that I, you know, if I was
031going to be here, I was sort of at the limit of the the extent that I could, uh, could lead professional development for physical education teachers. So what they're going to do next year, what the plan is that they will do is that they have identified professional learning that they will teach to one another throughout the year. So maybe this teacher is a really good at teaching uh dance as a component of what and we might use that as as we go forward. So um I the the really big win here is that we have teachers that are coming together as a professional educators finding ways to improve instruction, understanding the performance of our of our students. Um this is not a new program. We didn't spend any money uh to do any of this
032work. We just really relied on our teachers to come together to figure out how can we improve instruction as the professionals that they are and they've done a wonderful wonderful job of doing that. Um and and really really proud of that. Um next couple slides I'll just share with you. This is that assessment cycle. U you long story short, we do an assessment at the beginning mid middle of the year and at the end of the year. Um the different levels of schools just because the schedule operates differently might be a little bit different. Uh but that's that's sort of how that assessment is going. So we can can annually reflect on or actually three times a year reflect on where uh that student is going. I just want to share a couple of pictures
033uh that I'm really proud of uh because I think it's really fun uh to to think about and I think pictures are worth a thousand words as as we all say. Um this is the the the backwards design exercise that we did. This is at obviously at EC Glass. This is all the PE teachers in the division. And what you see here is uh if you look at the sort of lower right hand corner, brand new teachers working directly with more experienced teachers. You see uh departments of teachers at a school taking a look at that beginning of the year data and saying, "Okay, what is this information telling us and how can we make instruction better by understanding what that data looks like and how do we make that that improvement?" So, this was
034a really wonderful day. It was only a couple hours long, but they spent a lot of time working together, having serious conversations about the physical fitness of our students. How do we make instruction better so they have a great experience and they enjoy physical uh physical fitness? And so they in that I don't expect you to read that uh but it's just an example of uh the kinds of questions they were answering. And this is actually a a real response from from one school that was working together. um thinking about instructional planning, we're saying a after we do that first initial um assessment in the fall, that data collection, we're saying what can our students do now already, right? Uh and what impact does that have on our teaching? What can they not do at
035this point? What impact is that going to have um on our students? What are the interests that our students have that we can draw them into instruction on on a daily basis so that they're excited about being in PE class, right? They're excited about exercising um to the best extent we can. what are those learning preferences? And then really important and that's really kind of the the chart that you see here is how can we differentiate instruction so that we know that we are meeting students individual needs based on their interests, based on their readiness levels now, based on their learning preferences and and do so in a way that takes a look at a couple of things. First of all, we want to look at students who may be not quite performing where we
036want them to be because number one, maybe they have a physical fitness issue, right? Maybe they're not quite there yet physically. We also might uh as you can imagine might have some students who may not be engaging just may not be interested in doing physical fitness right they may be physically fit as it is right now but they just maybe just PE class wasn't exciting for them what kind of things can we do to make instruction better for them and then also very important to to differentiation is thinking about students who are already more advanced than our instruction level was planned for right so students who are really in this case in good physical fitness shape maybe they do athletics uh on the side or whatever the case may be and how do we make
037this experience wonderful for them so that PE class can be valuable in their experiences and so you can see here there's lots of questions uh teachers were asking themselves how do they answer and how do how are they thinking about their addressing instruction um as well um just a couple more pictures uh here um this is a a picture obviously at Dunar Middle School what you see here um is uh some some direct instruction where if you'll see the teacher on the left side is working specifically with a student that's going through a drill. You also see a stu a group of students who are not currently exercising, but they're engaged in what's going on in the lesson. Uh even the person that's sitting on the the the bleachers, you know, she's not sleeping, right?
038Uh she's engaged in what's going on. So, that's a really positive thing. And then you have the student on the right that's working independently. Um that's really positive, right? So, there's there's clear engagement u when there's clearly this lesson or instruction that's that's going on. The next slide there, this is a a whole group. This is one of those warm-up exercises. Um, again, this is at uh at EC Glass where the whole group of students is doing their warm-up exercise together. Uh, they're they're doing uh I think they're running back and forth pretty much uh at this point getting ready for their aerobic assessment going on. Again, you see everyone in that picture engaged in instruction. They are doing the work. They are exercising in the middle of the school day in a PE class.
039They're not laying on the bleachers. They're not, you know, talking on their phone, right? They're not doing whatever they're supposed not supposed to be doing. they are engaged in instruction and that's a really positive thing. Uh and the last thing is this is one of my favorite pictures that I I I I clipped uh as I was driving by TC Miller one day. Uh um Roswell Brown is a was a first year teacher at TC Mill this year. He's staying with us. He's going to go to Dunar next year and be a great middle school PE teacher there. You see this really great whole group instruction uh where we're learning to play kickball as a team. You see every single student that's involved uh is engaged in instruction. and they're actively doing the work uh
040and and and and being a part of it. So, I was really proud of those pictures and that was reflective I think of the kind of instruction that we were seeing throughout the year. So, what are those results look like? Um we saw lots more students who were actively engaged in physical education. Uh we saw far fewer behavioral challenges during PE class than we did in previous years. That's fantastic. Uh not there weren't any, right? But there were were less than what there were before. We have seen improved student physical fitness. I'll show you data what that looks like in a few minutes. And I think my what I really really appreciate about this is that we've seen really improved teacher engagement and professionalism and people are excited about their job. There's always been wonderful
041PE teachers in Lynchburg City Schools. We're continuing to grow that. Um we're excited about that and I think this is an opportunity for another example of excellence in LCS. We should be good at physical education because we do it. It should be something we're strong at. It shouldn't be something that we're looking like we are well well behind. Right? So you're saying that's all great, right? Uh sounds sounds good. What does the actual data look like? And before I get to that, I want to remind you of the data that we had at the end of last year. So if we go to the next slide. So you remember this, right? Lots of red, lots of negative numbers. Well, what does the next slide look like for this year? Lots of positive numbers, lots of
042areas where we are either meeting the uh meeting the statewide average or we're ahead of the statewide average, right? Um and and that's really positive. 12 out of the 15 areas we are either again meeting or above there. And 14 out of the 15 areas, if you go to the next slide, we have made um on the next slide. We've made substantial substantial gains. Wow. Uh in our physical fitness and the results our students are showing because of the really really high quality instruction that's going on as a result of the the teachers that are working together and doing really great work. So really really really proud of all the work the teachers are doing uh to make this happen for our students. Um these are dramatic changes in numbers. These are dramatic changes in
043our performance and I'm really really proud of that um as we go forward again. So last slide here um just a couple of things uh for that's coming up for next year that's planned for next year. Um as I mentioned before the 2025 26 professional learning days uh they're designed by teachers uh for one another to say hey here I have a strength in this area then I'll lead professional development for this area. Um and so I'm excited to hopefully that that goes well and and they will be excited about continuing forward with that. Uh we have developed a standard curriculum for family life at the middle school level. The same thing needs to happen for uh elementary and high school that's ongoing right now. Um we'll be working there will be work with the
044school health advisory board and ultimately that will need to come to the board for approval um as a part of what you do. Um as well um we're also planning for the implementation of the wellnet software. So this is an a tool that allows PE teachers to track all this data in a way that is not nearly as manual. Literally, I have a Google spreadsheet that everybody is putting their data into, but it will also allow us to track not only by grade and gender, but also other demographics and what kind of different experiences students might be having. How can we connect their physical fitness potentially with their other academic performance and and those sorts of things. So, it'll be really good for for teachers as we continue forward. Um, I hope that the board
045um will continue to set the tone that physical education is extremely important for our students. Um and it's important that that that tone be set not only with students but also with parents and other adults in the schools. Um and because of that we need to really make sure that we're protecting PE time at all levels. Uh that has to be a core part of the broad experiences of our students. Um and then ultimately I would say it would be wonderful if we can continue to invest in professional development uh for our teachers for those physical education teachers. And I'll just give my last slide there. Um you might be saying you know hey is this really what we ought to be focusing on right uh you know reading and math is really important and
046absolutely 100% is uh but I just want to take you back to the founding of what public education is in in America and it is uh from Benjamin Franklin the first uh public school system was in Pennsylvania and he said that there should we should place both an emphasis on physical as well as intellectual fitness because ed exercise invigorates the soul and the body and and that's been a part of public education for a long time and I hope that that will continue in Lynchburg City Schools. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Questions for Dr. War. Dr. D, could we go back to slide number 12? Uh 12. Yes. So, it looks like there's still a problem at the middle school level for aerobic strength. Um and it actually went down. It's the
047one place where we had a decrease. Yes. Does does anybody have any insight into what's going on there? I I think that that is a um I I believe that's a student engagement issue more than anything. Um I think that we've got to figure out um and this is interesting that it's in middle school because of just maybe some interest at that level, maturity at that level. Yeah. Making sure that students understand it's important. Um, and I I think that's probably it's probably more that than it is overall physical fitness in that particular category. Um, but I Yeah, that was also very frustrating to me. I was everywhere else great. Miss and do you think it's more or less the seventh eighth graders because sixth graders just came out of elementary and they're usually active.
048Yeah, I think I think that's I think that particular time in life uh is the case. But I will say there's no reason that Lynchberg kids ought to be any different than any other kids in seventh and eighth grade. So we got to we got to make some changes there. And I, you know, that that's one of those things that those teachers need to sit down and say, "Hey, what what can we do differently to make sure there's engagement there?" Mr. Carter, um, I understand that as you're transitioning to new leadership, you're leaving and it's going to be taken over by sort of a committee. Is there any way we can try to integrate so that we can find somebody? Because usually when something doesn't have a leader, it doesn't have the impact as somebody
049that pushes it. Okay. I think she's ready to answer that. So, go ahead. Go ahead. So, I do understand that. So, there is a a position posted to be the coordinator for health, PE, the arts, and extracurriculars, I think. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Will not be a committee. Okay. Yeah. So, but I but to your point, I think the success here is about bringing those teachers to the table, letting letting them make the instructional decisions because they're the closest to the students. I think that's really important, but I do think to your point, I think it's really important for somebody in central office to have their eye on it, to be a part of that to help kind of coordinate the the organization of instruction there. And so, and one more half question. One
050of the things that has concerned me in the past is at the elementary level sometimes when kids misbehave the punishment is to take away recess. Yeah. And I know as a cow if I was a child in today's I probably would have been labeled with some letters because of my activities. I think um we shouldn't do that first of all. We need them to be active. Um that's my that's my opinion. I don't know instructionally, but I think we should find other ways to help correct their behavior and not take away recess. And um and also at the elementary level, try to help the teachers create scenarios where we engage them in specific things during recess to to help with their physical fitness. Yeah. Oh, and last question. Also, it's been shown in data in
051other schools that kids should have a little more recess, but we haven't increased it. Is there a reason why we can't increase it? I think it's a you know, I I can't speak to that other than other than say I know it's a it's a time and everything else time. I think it's a balance and it would be wonderful if we could increase, but you know, we also lunches are important. Um, and sometimes we, you know, think if we need a little bit more instructional time, well, we'll just make lunch a little bit shorter, but students need that time to get through the line, to eat, to be healthy. Um, and we all know that we really need to work on literacy and math and other instruction. And so if we take away from five
052minutes from a literacy block or 10 minutes from a math block to increase recess, um, then that takes away the time from other really important instruction. So, it's it's a it's a struggle because you're limited number of hours in a day. Yeah. Because I I know from activity, especially being a past ropes instructor myself, the more they get out, the more the blood flows, the better they think, the better they do. Do do you want to talk a little bit about the elementary pilot of the grant with the movement? We did. So, we we we actually were able to go out, we got an this grant called the active learning grant. We worked with prek to 2 teachers in a couple of schools uh to try to incorporate movement into daily classroom instruction. Um I'll
053say this, I I um the way we rolled that out into a couple into some of the training probably wasn't great enough on me, right? The way frankly um and so um it was very successful at a couple of places, maybe not so much others. And that's that's a that's a that's a design issue, right? Um so I think that that that continues to be a part of that. I know that um lots of kindergarten and first grade teachers and pre-K teachers already include movement in what they're doing. I was going to say the idea was to say let's do it in a way that is incorporated not only to uh what's just being done but also how how does that connect to standards so that there's great communication between the PE teacher and the
054the the classroom teacher, right? We didn't do a great job of communicating that part of it uh to to some of those teachers. And so that but I do think that's another really great tool going forward. I was going to say we did that at least 10 years ago. I know because we would stand up and do twisting and jumping jacks and then we sit back down and get back to work. So, yeah. All right. Is there just a quick question? Is there a particular reason why the the assessment is done on a different schedule with the high schools? Yes, ma'am. So, um at Glass they do PE on a semester schedule. So, one semester you do PE, one semester you do health. GL at Heritage it's more of a quarter system. So they they
055go back and forth. Um that is another thing that I think should we should reflect on what the right way to do that is. Um I I think there's probably pros and cons. I think that you probably do need at some point to think about how you like how you make sure you have physical movement um at a school that is uh you know in their health time. You know if you're if you're in health time for a semester you may not be getting any movement for a semester right and that's troubling but there's also reasons to do that. So that's it's that I think that's a legacy thing just how PE instruction has been done for a long time. Um but I think that should somebody should take a look at that. Thank you.
056Thank you Dr. War. Next one isformational items. Next school board meeting on Tuesday July 1st at 5:00 p.m. here in school admin building. Next school work work session July 15th at 5:00 p.m. here in school admin building. Next one is special presentation special recognition Mrs. day. Yes. Um this is an exciting time where we have a couple of our administrators and a couple of our board members who will be leaving us after tonight. So these are the two here. Thank you. Thank you for all you have done for Lynchburg City Schools. We appreciate Thank you so much. everything. [Applause] Come on. Let's take a picture. He's you taking a picture from there or No, he's not. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] That's what M. Awesome. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. was not break
057it open. Thank you. And also we have do we have our board members who will no longer be with us this year or well for the rest of the year. Um but we have Mr. Dr. Mark Tinsley and the Lynchburg City School Board. Dr. Mark Tinsley for one year of services to the Lynchburg City School Board. Lynchburg City School commends you for your dedication. June 17, 2025. And we just want to say thank you for your services along with Mr. Andrews same certificate for three years of services and Dr. Day Martin Day for his three years of services as well with the Nutri City School. [Applause] Graduation, man. We made it. We made it. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. I hope you appreciate your flowers. Appreciate you. Thank you, Tina. This is tough to
058do. Thank you, sir. Any comments for uh get the groceries in terms of recognition? Mrs. Lowry. Yes. I want to thank Mrs. Pew for all your help with academic success committee. The two years I was have been on it and you brought some really good information for us and you guys were great at answering questions and prepping and and behind the scenes, you know, even questions answering. So, thank you. I I learned a lot. So, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And um Dr. Dr. D, I've learned a lot from you, especially about the Robert's rules and you're great. So, and some of the conferences we've been to have been wonderful. So, and it was good to see Mr. Andrews again after teaching his child as well. And so, yeah, our interactions and and Mr.
059Tinsley also, thank you so much for everything and for your service. So, you had a great great you did a great job with the superintendent search. So, thank you for leading that, Mrs. Preston. Um, I'd like to thank all of you. I think that people don't realize the amount of effort, energy, time that you spend doing all of the things that you do, but you're doing it for all the right reasons. You're helping our kids. There's no no better thing that you could be doing than that. So, thank all of you for what you have done, and I'm sure we'll continue to do. Thank you, Mr. Connor. Um, I'd like to thank um Dr. Pew first of all, for you're leading us in academics, and I already see the improvements. I can't wait to see
060the I believe we're going to show a significant increase in so scores this year. Um I want to thank Dr. War. My short time on the finance committee, the information you provided helped us make some real strong hard decisions and I appreciate the hard work you put in and I think some of the things that we had on the burner we will be bringing forward to the board you know when the new um leadership is in place. And I want to thank the I want Miss Dr. day. I'm I'm concerned because nobody is going to be as detail oriented as you to help us not just navigate through um the Robert's rules, but um in putting together his research, the research that you put together for what we need to look at for the discipline
061committee and some of those things, you're going to be sorely sorely missed. And then Dr. Tinsley and and um Mr. Andrew. I love working with you guys. It's been great. Mr. Andrews, Dr. D, and Dr. Tinsley. Uh man, um three years applied for the school board. I did not get here alone. It was a a whole host of people, community members that uh interviewed me, that um challenged me. Um uh the clerk of council supported my decision. uh Dr. Coleman, Dr. Brennan, um there was a de various council members that that took me out to lunch and and counseledled me and talked to me, talked about just the community as a whole, talked about politics, talked about preservation of public education, how important that was. And um I could not be in the seat without
062community period. Um, and then of course I want to thank all of you guys for the civility, the friendships, the conversations. Um, I feel like we've made some really good waves in public education. It hasn't always been easy and of course we didn't always agree on every temp every topic, but we definitely made sure that we walked away from this horseshoe um in a good manner. Nobody disrespected each other. everybody seem to still be have some type of um some type of decorum, right? And so I will forever take that with me and I appreciate everything you guys have done for me. Thank you. Well, it has been a lot of work. Um and um I know I can be obsessive about rules sometimes. That's just the way I am. Um, but I've learned a
063tremendous amount. And for any of the new upcoming school board members who might be listening, uh, fasten your seat belts. Uh, there's a lot to learn and I wouldn't have made it without a number of people who helped me along the way. Uh Bob Brennan in particular when I first joined the board, he he he met with me and and helped me get on my feet. Um all the past board members, um Kim Sinha and I shared rides to and from the uh board meetings and we had a lot of conversations in the car and she was always available to answer questions about how did we handle things in the past and particular her comments about various personalities on the board. That was interesting sometimes. But um I owe a lot to all my schoolboard
064colleagues, past and present. Um we we all bring something different to the table and we learn from each other and and sometimes it's hard to figure out how do we function as a corporate body when everybody's got a little bit different take on things. And that's where Robert's rules comes in. That's why I put a lot of emphasis on that because I think that's how we do it. Um, it provides a framework for that. But I do apologize if I'm a bit obsessive about that, but I'm again I'm trying to help us function as well as we can. Um, so thank you all for uh doing this with me. Thank you, Dr. Tinsley. Uh, yeah, just thank the community, thank this council, thank you all for giving me a shot at this. Um, sometimes you
065have to make hard decisions in life. I had to look at priorities and decide that uh that one year was all I could give to the school board. I it's unfortunate. Wish I could do more. I've loved the the year that I've had here and I appreciate the friendship, the collegiality, and the camaraderie that we've had and uh and I think we've done some good things together. So, thank you, Mrs. Pe. Thank you. I just want to say thank you um for all of your support to the school board. Um I know at times you've challenged us, but that's your job. um that's the role that you need to play. Um it helps us as educators reflect on the things that we're doing and really look at are the are the programs and and things
066that we have in place is that what's best for students? Um and you're right, we are all here for for students that that's why we're here. So, I it's been an honor to work in LCS to um I never thought that I would end up in in this space um because I went all through Lynchburg City Schools. I started teaching here and I never thought that I would end my career here. So, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. [Applause] Well, I want to want to thank everyone here and thank um all of the staff that we've had the wonderful opportunity to work with. There are so many tremendously dedicated people who work for Lynchburg City Schools. Um all of you among them. Um and this community cares very deeply about its uh its students.
067So like Dr. Mrs. Pew, uh uh first of all, I want to say Amy and I have had the best we have partnership and working relationship over the last few years. Yeah, even before when I was at the city, we just we've just had a blast working together. I've learned such a tremendous amount from her and and others here. But, you know, really want to thank you as well. But like Amy, um I came through Lynburg City Schools. Um and I feel like um Lynchburg City Schools got me my start just in life, right? Um but I also had the really great opportunity to come to education as a result of Lynchburg City Schools. It's gotten me my start now in in education and I have a great opportunity going forward. Uh but I love
068LCS. I love um the people here. It is this has been my favorite job I've ever had uh because it's just it's such a wonderful community. Um and I just really appreciate the time and the opportunity uh to be here and to to hopefully contribute a little bit. Uh but I've learned a tremendous amount. Um and and I just really am full of gratitude. So thank you. Right. I'm the last one but I'll be not the least one. I'll start with Dr. Wardga. I have known his family for years. If you know Lynchber, how Lynchburg works. Dad was my doctor and his uh mother was my daughter's pharmacist. So, I've known the family for a long time. And he's a good guy, a a good-hearted man. Every time I see him 7:30 on Wards Ferry
069Road and I'm coming out of the home to go to work, I said, "Forgive me." I said, "What the heck? What happened? Everything okay?" He said, "Yes, I'm going to Heritage High School." That's his work ethics. He's a hard worker and we'll miss you. Uh you are a kind-hearted soul and a very hard worker. You have given yourself 100% to the school district. Um for thank you for all you have done for our kids. Every time there's an event I see your uh blue uh whatever that SUV shows up. Uh Dr. Tinsley, you and I have become very close over the last uh three year. No, you have been here one year. I thought three years. I thought we've been three years. We've become good friends. uh and uh you'll be missed by me. You
070know, you're on my speed dial. Many times I call you and uh uh I don't know what day I call him colonel. The other day I call him doctor. The other day I call him Mark. So but hope you will stay in touch. Yes. Uh you know I will not delete your personal cell phone number from my phone and I'll still be calling you. Sounds good. And uh Mrs. Pew uh you know you are a legend. Uh thank you because every time you look for a solid academic advice I can see everybody is turning over to you whether it comes to assessments you know all those things you've been able to manage the academic success committee very well under difficult circumstances you know I'm looking at Mrs. Lowi, she knows exactly what I'm talking about.
071You two managed that you with her very well. So, thank you for all you have done. Thank you. And you'll be missed. You have worked as you said throughout the system from IT to everywhere else. And so, you know this district very well and hopefully uh new generations, Dr. Davis is standing right there can lean on you for advice in future. I always say never burn the bridge you walk on. So you always look back to other people who have made this place better place uh to look back on them. So thank you for everything you have done for LCS. Now turn to my best friend Dr. T. He he calls at home his wife that I'm his work wife. You're the you're the other man in my life. I call him so often and
072sometimes after the board meeting you know things are not easy all the time. that difficult. So you want somebody to run by things and he has been a very good advice all the time. He's I call him he's my linear guy. He knows the the line is flowing always knows the policies always knows the procedures and see where we deviated and things when I don't do right he just comes and tells me no this is not the right thing to do. So he brings me back. Right. So, we have had conversations where we disagree, but that's perfectly fine. Disagreement is part of friendship. And I I'll value your friendship. And I'll be leaning on you more and more. And my phone number. He has two phone numbers. One is personal, one he keeps for the
073school board actually. But he's driving to his daughter in Cleveland. We talk you know we we we talk so much uh that it has become a routine and for me that'll be a difficult change uh uh and then um you'll be missed uh you have achieved a sort of a legacy in policies right everything in the policy knows every detail that uh if policy so hopefully we can lean back on you on those difficult issues and you'll be missed on this board. Thank you Mr. Andrews, brother Andrews 1750. Yeah, he he's a great guy. You know, you have a a very gentle so it's it's a difficult job and you do a wonderful balance uh between looking at all sides. Uh sometimes I've been skewed to one side, but you keep that uh very delicate
074balance without being affected by the drama on either side. and for thank you for doing that and you'll be missed. uh your common sense will be missed. That's why you are the common sense guy. You know, you look at both sides and say, "Okay, this doesn't make sense. This doesn't make sense." So, but we appreciate everything you have done and I think this community appreciates. Thank you. He's the guy one time I was uh having a cardiac problem. He knows it. I called 911. I That's not HIPPA violation, right? No. He's the one who showed up, took me to ER and I was in taken right inside and done the procedure. So he was the first paramedic at my home at that time. I didn't knew who this guy was. But now later on when
075I found out I said, "Man, you saved my life." So just dropped him in the gutter. So God knows how many lives he saves. That's why I said this community appreciates everything you do day in day out. Middle of the night. My call was in the middle of the night. So these guys, they're awake all night taking those 911 emergency calls. And when they show up on Watts Ferry, you take about two two less than two minutes to show up. And especially when it's emergency call, you guys are less than a minute. You just show up. So it's a lot of u things you do besides school board which this community appreciates. So thank you. Thank thank you very much for all you have done for the school board as well as the community. Yes.
076So other than that anything for the good of the order and Mrs. Day uh thank you for all you have done this year ma'am and your in the back end we have working Austin and his team Mr. Eagle uh thank you for all you have done Mr. Paul, I missed you. Sir, you have a comment to make. I missed him, right? He's gone. Must be gone. I think I missed Mr. Paul. Oh, it says he's left the meeting. It says I apologize. I I just forgot to look at my back. But Mr. Depal has his uh Miss Jamie's this morning. Miss Jameson as she's always making sure that things are in order and Shepard is sitting in the back. Dr. Davis is there. I can count on and on everybody. But uh this is a
077collective effort to run the school district is not easy. Dr. Copeland is not here today. But he still took my call today. So that's the you know there's somebody was joking with me about vacation. There's no vacation. And today where he is uh he can only use a satellite phone but he still picked up the phone. Uh because that's the dedication of personnel. I call it personnel at LCS. We don't see it on the front end but the back end I see it day in day out. You see what I'm saying? So hopefully uh the change in uh the top level personnel the things will continue going forward and we'll be doing what needed to be done to provide a quality learning environment for these young men and women. Absolutely. That's the bottom line. Yes.
078No drama. We are here to provide a quality learning environment. That's our goal. That's the sole goal. Right, brother Andrews? And one good thing I forgot to mention he's been fighting for last 5 years for$,750. 1750. Yes sir. So we achieved it this year 1750,000. That's his uh legacy that you were able to achieve that 1750. 1750 t-shirt. Yeah. That's I thought you were mentioning that alcohol bottles. I said you said 1750. I said, "Oh, that's 1750." Yes, sir. Yeah. So, 1750 is is your legacy in the school district cuz you have been very vocal and fighting. I still remember from the Heritage High School uh board meeting and you and I were sitting together saying how should we scramble to get that 1750 and finally God has us you know eyes on you and
079say we got to make it happen this year and it did happen. So thank you and after said anything else for good of the order the meeting is adjourned